Page 114 of Gift from the Tree

The unbalance will shift, as will the Primary’s gift, as each bond is completed, from harsher, more negative unrest to a clearer and harmonious balance. A bond is completed through the ultimate form of intimate contact.

Sex. It’s talking about sex.

Fan-fucking-tastic. I’m going to be a nutcase until I have sex with all of them.

Despite my mental objections to that at the moment, my body has a much different reaction. Wetness soaks my underwear, my breast growing heavy, and my nipples hardening. I have to bite my lip to keep in a whimper that wants to escape just from the mental image I give myself of having all of them touching me, tasting me, owning me.

Draken’s head buried between my thighs as Caspian sucks one nipple into his mouth, his shadows playing with the other. Corentin standing to the side, telling them what to do to me, and Tillman slowly stroking himself as he guides his cock to my…

Wetness gathering on my fingers snaps me out of the lust-filled haze I was in, and I snatch my hand out of my shorts as I realize I was about to finger myself to the thought of all of them claiming me together. Rushing to the bathroom, I throw cold water in my face as I pant through my need. This is the worst the desire’s ever been and of course it happens now.

Taking a few more calming breaths and cleaning myself up, I dry the water off my face and enter back into my room, only to walk through a cloud of shadows.

“Are you okay?” Caspian asks, stepping around to face me.

“I’m fine,” I say breathlessly, my face flames as I replay Caspian’s role in the fantasy I created.

“They’ve knocked a couple of times. I figured it’d be best if I checked on you.” His voice is deep and sultry, causing the wetness I just cleaned up to return.

Clearing my throat, stepping away from him, I make my way back to the reading nook and sit back down. “I was in the bathroom. They can come in.”

He stares at me for a long, heated moment before walking to the door and opening it. A stampede of footsteps sounds as they all enter together, making the space in here shrink tremendously.

“Are you okay? We were getting worried.” Draken kneels in front of me, preparing to place his hands on my knees, then thinks better of it.

“She’s fine. She was using the bathroom,” Caspian answers, leaning against the bookshelves with his arms folded. The grin playing on his lips makes me panic at the thought of him knowing what I was doing.

“You’re sure you’re okay?” Corentin asks, dragging my attention away from his brother.

“I’m fine,” I say with more anger than I meant. The thought of Caspian catching me pleasuring myself, even if I did stop, is causing a rush of both embarrassment and arousal that I don’t understand.

“Sorry, that was rude. I’m just hungry and tired,” I murmur to Corentin after I take a calming breath.

“The kitchen is on the way up with the food now.” Always prepared, always in control. He’s tamed his hair a little since I saw him an hour ago, but the five o’clock shadow is still there and it makes him look older, tired.

“Thank you.” We all fall into an awkward silence, no one knowing what to say or not to say right now.

“Can I sit there?” Draken points to the spot beside me on the daybed. His eyes are shifting rapidly, his dragon pushing to the forefront and him wrestling him back away. Nodding my head is the only invitation he needs. As he sits, he closes my journal, handing it off to me. “Here you go.”

“Thank you,” I say simultaneously, both of us holding on to it and staring at each other.

A throat clearing causes me to flinch and pull the journal into my lap. “What were you reading?” Caspian asks curiously.

“My journal Gaster gave me.” I show him the front awkwardly, then place it back in my lap, running my hands down the front. I don’t quite know how to act with him. He’s talked more in the last two hours than the entire time I’ve been here and it’s fucking with my head.

“That’s a world of knowledge sitting there. Anything interesting?” He whistles.

“Everything. He just added new pages for me today on Nexus Primaries, Perfecta Anima, and Guardria bonds.”

“How did he add pages?” Again, curiosity coats his tone. I want badly to be petty and tell him to mind his fucking business, but that isn’t going to help. Lead by example and all that bullshit.

Nosey fucking ghost.

A booming laugh fills the room as Tillman throws his head back. It’s such an elated and contagious sound, I’m stunned silent for a moment, then a fit of laughter falls from my lips as understanding dawns on me that he just heard what I thought about Caspian. We laugh, the two of us, for a minute before tapering off, and I wipe the tears from my eyes and chuckle softly.

“That was beautiful,” Draken says faintly. A smile stretches across his face and devotion shows in his eyes. His expression is so intense, I blush, then turn to Tillman and see the wild glint he had in his eyes earlier is replaced with humor. Both Corentin and Caspian are looking between me and Tillman like we’ve truly lost it.

“He has a spell that he uses to copy the parchment or notes, or his own research that he wants me to have, and it’ll add a copy to my journal,” I tell Caspian to pull him out of his shock.

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